Easy Lemon Bars Recipe with Gingersnap Crust

If you're looking for a homemade lemon bars recipe that is extra lemony, tart, and tangy you've found it! The tanginess of the lemon custard and the spicy sweetness of the crust work together to create a uniquely delicious bar cookie. Best of all it's super easy, too.

Table of Contents

• Lemon Bars Ingredients
• Instructions
• Tips
• Variations
• FAQs
• Get the kids involved
• Related recipes
• Kaffeeklatsch
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Lemon Bars Ingredients

This is a simple recipe with easy to find ingredients - AND it's delicious!

• Lemons
• Sugar
• Eggs
• Butter
• Flour
• Gingersnaps or other suggested cookies
• Confectioner's sugar

Instructions

1. Blend cookies until they turn into find crumbs.
2. Rub the butter into the crumbs.
3. Spoon it into the greased pan.
4. Press down firmly and bake.,

1. Break room temperature eggs into a bowl
2. Blend with a fork or whisk.
3. In another bowl whisk together sugar, flour, and Confectioner's sugar.
4. Grate the lemon zest over the bowl with the flour mixture.
5. Stir in the zest.
6. Whisk eggs into the sugar and flour mixture.
7. Add lemon juice.
8. Pour over the baked crust.

Tips

• Grease the pan and line with parchment - then grease the parchment. Let the parchment hang over the edge for easy removal.
• Use a food processor to get the gingersnap crumbs as fine as possible so when you press into the pan it forms a firm, yet tender, crust.
• Use cold butter to create the crumb crust.
• Once the crumbs are in the crust push down with a drinking glass to ensure the crust is evenly thick.
• Always bake the crust first. This keeps it from getting soggy.
• Be sure your ingredients are room temperature.
• For the best color use pasture raised eggs. The chickens have better access to a variety of natural foods and the yolks are darker and richer, in my opinion.
• Microwave your lemon a few seconds or firmly roll it on the counter for a minute or two. This will give you more juice from each lemon.
• If you like thinner bars use a 11x7-inch baking pan. If you like thicker bars use a 8x8-inch pan. You'll need to cook the thicker ones a little longer.

Variations

• Use lemon cookies instead of gingersnaps.
• Or, use graham crackers, 'Nilla Wafers, or butter cookies.
• Use part orange juice.
• Use all grapefruit juice.
• Try lime or key limes.

FAQs

Recipe rated: Easy - kids 8 - 12 can do this with help.

How long should you let them cool?

For the best results lemon bars should cool to room temperature (about an hour) and then be refrigerated for 2 hours before cutting.

Storage

These custard based bar cookies should be kept in the refrigerator. Plan on eating them within two days or so. You can also freeze them.

What is the best way to cut lemon bars?

After bars have chilled in the refrigerator pop them in the freezer for about 30 minutes so that they almost freeze. Pull up on the parchment to remove the uncut bars from the pan. Cut carefully with a very sharp chef's knife dipped in hot water.

How many lemons make a cup of juice?

You'll need 4 or 5 lemons for a cup of lemon juice.

Get the kids involved

Some of my best memories are of baking with my Mom, although those are few and far between. I was messy and she hated messes - it was not a great combination! Baking with your kids is a great way to make holiday memories and create new family traditions - even when the kids are small. Here are some ways to get the littles involved -

• Place paper doilies on top of the chilled lemon bars and let someone sift powdered sugar over the top. When you carefully lift the doily there's a beautiful design left behind!
• Use a reamer and let someone squeeze the lemons to get all the juice out.
• Mixing the butter and the cookie crumbs and then pressing it into the baking pan is simple - most kiddos over the age of 5 or 6 can do it.

Related recipes

Here are some more of my favorite holiday recipes!

• Lemon Snaps cookies are another way to get that tangy lemon flavor! So easy!
• Meyer Lemon Bundt Cake is so easy and so lemony!
• No Bake Lemon Cheesecake is like the one Woolworths use to serve.
• Lemon & Lavender Butter Cookies are pretty, delicate, and easy to make ahead.

Kaffeeklatsch

When I was little we lived in a small little town on the outskirts of a rather large city. There wasn't an all-inclusive grocery store back then; instead Mom picked up meat at the butcher shop, vegetables at the farm stand, and baked items at the bakery. I think there was one largish grocer for canned goods and boxed items as well.

That was back in the day when ladies changed out of their house-dresses and put on a dress, stockings, high heels, and lipstick to go to the store. It seems funny now... I mean have you ever been to the neighborhood everything store?

Exactly.

I loved watching my mom get ready and, although I was very much a tomboy, I didn't mind the puffy dress and patent leather shoes I had to put on because I knew that a trip to the bakery was ahead. Once at the bakery the ladies would gush over my curls and offer me lemon filled donuts.

Score!

Since then any kind of lemon filled pastry (like this lemon icebox pie) just fills me with contentment. After 7 years of curls and those extra tangy lemon bars I am conditioned to feel good about the world after eating one of these.

📖 Recipe

First published December 16, 2018. Last updated March 9, 2020 to improve reader experience and speed up loading time.